


Here There Be Demons

by savilk



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: M/M, more pairings/characters once I get there
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2016-10-18
Packaged: 2018-07-11 12:51:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7052395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/savilk/pseuds/savilk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Xander accidentally summons the crown prince of Hell into his living room.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Summoning

**Author's Note:**

> The demon summoning AU that literally no one asked for.

“Leo.”

“Ah…yes, brother?”

“What did you just _do_?!”

Fifteen minutes ago, Xander had returned home after a 12 hour work shift. Ten minutes ago, he had changed out of his work uniform (amazing, how sick one could get of the smell of coffee when you worked with it near endlessly). Five minutes ago, he accidentally nicked himself cutting an apple to share with Elise. One minute ago, he was absently sifting through his and Leo’s shared desk in search of his textbook.

Up until this point, everything was normal.

Present time: there was a very large, very red, and very spiky man (?) in the middle of their living room floor, standing in a glowing pentacle. Why did Xander know it was glowing? Because all their light bulbs had just _exploded_.

“…I would like to point out that, very technically, it was as much your doing as mine.”

“ _Leo_.”

“Right. Well. The library recently got some new books on, ah…demon summoning.”

“ _Demon -_?!”

“Well I didn’t think they would actually work!” his little brother said defensively. “I mean, I drew the summoning circles just to see if I could, but even if they weren’t complete hogwash, you need other things for the ritual anyways.”

“You didn’t think _for one second_ that drawing _demon circles_ would be a bad idea?!”

“It’s not just the circle! I mean, according to the book, we would have needed nectar of the gods, virgin blood, and seven candles lit by lightning! I thought we were reasonably safe!”

“Then please explain to me _why it worked_.”

“Xander, please. Stop yelling at the poor boy,” Camilla interrupted, hiding a yawn behind one deceptively delicate-looking hand. “From what I understand, it was partially your fault too.”

“And just _how_ \- “

“Nectar of the gods.” She gestured to the half of an apple he was still holding. “Virgin blood.” The cut on his finger (and he was never going to hear the end of this one, he can just tell). “And I’m going to guess that we had seven light bulbs. There, you see?”

Oh.

“If it makes you feel any better,” Leo shifted awkwardly and didn’t meet his eyes. “‘Virgin blood’ doesn’t actually mean - “

“ _Can we just_ …figure out how to get the…the _demon_ out of here?”

Camilla hummed thoughtfully. “Well, traditionally, one would make a wish and the demon would fulfill it for you. In exchange for your soul.” She smiled serenely. “Leo? Does that book of yours say anything?”

“I’d have to look into which demon we actually summoned.” He looked mournfully at the mountains of paper on their desk.

“Right. Well. Perhaps we can just…ask?” Xander turned to face the demon for the first time since this whole fiasco started.

Weirdly enough, aside from the strange outfit, he looked…normal. Brown eyes, black hair (which, okay, spiked pretty oddly, but Xander had seen worse from high school boys), thin lips, and cheeks that still retained some baby fat. He didn’t look too much older than Xander, to be sure, and wouldn’t have garnered a second glance if they had just passed each other on the street.

The outfit, however… It looked like armor? Perhaps. Red and spiky had been his first impression, but there was also a white coat (?) and pants that went with it. The demon was also, Xander noted with some alarm, carrying a sword.

He made sure he and his siblings were well out of reach before addressing him.

“Excuse me.”

The demon looked at him now, the same calm expression on his face. It was rather unnerving, if Xander were to be honest.

“Right, well, as you can see, summoning you was an accident. Is there any way to send you back? Preferably with, er, all souls intact.”

The expression on his face didn’t change, but he did blink at him.

He also didn’t answer.

“Excuse me? Can you hear me?”

They weren’t _that_ far away.

“Odd,” he heard Leo murmur somewhere to his left, “the circle shouldn’t stop sound or anything…”

The demon shifted slightly and Xander immediately felt himself tense, ready to…well, probably get smited or something. He had the feeling he wouldn’t be much of a match for a demon.

Luckily for him, the demon wasn’t in a smiting mood, it seemed. He just raised a hand to rub at his face and finally opened his mouth to respond.

…in gibberish.

What.

“Oh,” Leo said meekly, “The circle must have come from one of the foreign books.”

Right. Of course. 

Just. Perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I read somewhere (aka some post on tumblr probably) that 'virgin blood' wasn't actually 'the blood of virgins', just blood that hasn't been used for a ritual yet. So yeah. That's where that came from. In case anyone was wondering.


	2. Housetraining

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which their family gets a pet and Xander is unduly worried.

Elise has taken to calling him Edward. Xander is not sure why (personally, he strikes Xander as more of a ‘Spike’), but it certainly made it easier to discuss their ‘little problem’ in public places without fear of being institutionalized.

Not that there was a whole lot to discuss. There wasn’t anything to be done until Leo managed to unearth the book that caused this whole mess, and between his little brother’s part time job and his heavy course load from uni, it would be a wonder if they were free of their problem by next year. Xander just made sure all his siblings knew to stay clear of the circle, just in case ‘Edward’ decided to get violent.

That rule lasted all of five seconds before they all collectively realized that the front door was on the other side of the pentacle and their living room really wasn’t that big.

It was lucky (and rather suspicious) that this demon didn’t seem particularly prone to violence. Watching Leo almost stumble into ‘Edward’ early one morning and Elise trip practically head first into one of those spikes, Xander just thanked his lucky stars this demon seemed rather patient.

(And was good at dodging.)

It was Camilla that brought up the issue of food. Did ‘Edward’ need to eat? Trying to pantomime eating at the demon just made Xander feel like a fool, so Elise left a plate of spaghetti for him while everyone else watched avidly (Leo even had a notebook and pen on hand).

As it turned out, demons either didn’t feast on anything but human souls and suffering, or this particular demon just didn’t like spaghetti. ‘Edward’ sniffed the plate, pulled a face (the most expression Xander had ever seen on the demon), and politely pushed the plate away.

(Xander maintained that that was certainly _not_ any indication of his cooking ability. Who even knows what a demon would consider good eating? No, he is _not_ offended, Camilla, _stop smirking_.)

While he told his siblings that, as ‘Edward’ didn’t seem to be wasting away (and obviously didn’t have good taste in food), they should stop feeding him, Elise and Leo seemed to like handing him bits and pieces off their plates. Leo, for experimental purposes, and Elise, because she most likely thought of ‘Edward’ as an unorthodox pet.

They did find out that he wouldn’t touch any food, but was partial to tea.

(Elise was delighted. She had a literally captive participant for her tea parties. There was nothing more strange than seeing ‘Edward’ nod with his usual gravity while listening to his little sister describe Mr. and Mrs. Piggy’s marital problems.) 

Leo had taken it upon himself to try to communicate with ‘Edward’. None of the common languages seemed to gather much of a response, and the written words failed as well, but he remained determined. The only way to communicate with the demon remained some convoluted form of charades. And even that wasn’t 100% effective. 

(Unless ‘Edward’ just pretended to be obtuse. Xander wouldn’t put it past him.)

Xander didn’t expect Leo to give up easily (stubborn to a fault for sure), but finding his little brother using ‘Edward’ as a sound boarding for not only languages, but his course work as well was a bit…startling, to say the least.

The very last straw was coming home to find Camilla using the demon’s hair to teach Elise how to tie a French braid properly.

It was not _normal_ how quickly having a captive demon in their living room stopped being a novelty and started being an everyday fixture. They should be trying to get rid of him, not have him over for _tea parties_. If he didn’t know his siblings better, Xander would think ‘Edward’ had cast some sort of spell on them (but they were an…eccentric bunch, to be sure).The fact that he wasn’t actively trying to kill them despite being trapped here could only be viewed as highly suspicious. Trying to tame a demon would only lead to disaster.

That was that. ‘Edward’ has got to go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh wow, this got more of a response than I thought it would. Thanks so much for all the lovely comments and kudos, and thanks for reading! As always, you can find more of my work at my [tumblr](http://secretsandsin.tumbr.com).


	3. Fire and Destiny

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Xander almost burns down an establishment of questionable reputation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Turned out a lot longer than I thought, so I cut it in half.

On Xander’s way to work, there is an... _establishment_ of the highly unsavory sort. Under normal circumstances, he would never think to step foot in the place, but…

Well. These were not normal circumstances. 

And thus, Xander found himself in front of ‘The Darkest Oblivion of the Fated Ones’ Compendium! (Spiritual and occult services here.)’ He was proud to say he only hesitated for a split second before heading inside. 

(The pedestrians staring at him like he was a lunatic had nothing to do with his haste, of course.)

It took a while for his eyes to adjust to the dim lighting inside. It seemed to be a simple enough room, although with the dark curtains covering all the walls, it was hard for him to grasp exactly how large it was. There was a spiraling staircase near the back, but aside from that, the only other features in the room were a single table covered in blue cloth right in the center and the four tall candle stands surrounding it, providing the only light.

(He really hoped those weren’t _actual_ candles. Walking into such an establishment was one thing, but voluntarily stepping into a big fire hazard was just too much.)

“Welcome to my FELL storefront!” 

Xander leapt halfway across the room and almost knocked over a candle. (Which was ironic in hindsight but simply terrifying in the moment.) 

The man in the extremely flamboyant...robe...leotard... _thing_ , didn’t seem particularly concerned about just how close he had been to burning himself to the ground and proceeded to prance around the table to face Xander with a rather terrifyingly bright smile on his face. 

“Come, my fine youthful friend, tell the mighty ODIN DARK what service he may provide for you today!” 

Xander almost walked back out the door.

Eying the man warily, he tried to decide if this ‘Odin Dark’ could really fix their demon problem. He certainly didn’t seem too trustworthy, but...perhaps looks could be deceiving? Honestly, Xander wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting before he walked in here, but he had a feeling not too many people could expect anyone like Odin Dark.

The man then struck a pose and started speaking very fast about... _something_ (he caught the words ‘fate’ and ‘thunder’, but honestly, he could have been talking about the stock market for all Xander could understand), and well. Perhaps this was not such a good idea... 

“Hold your horses, Mr. Fancy Pants,” a new voice came from the staircase as a woman in white robes (definitely robes this time) descended. “I have foreseen your future and you will regret leaving here without our advice.”

…

Clearly, this has been a mistake. 

Resolutely, he turned around and reached for the door. Perhaps he should have just taken Camilla’s advice and googled their little problem first.

“Xander Leopold Anastos.” He stopped short. “You would do well to listen to what we have to say.” 

But how did she - ?!

“I do applaud your bombastic and suitably mystic entrance, Orochi! But, er, perhaps you could tone down the mystic-ness? We don’t want to frighten off another honorable customer!”

“Oh, please. Like your ‘fell’ entrances are any better. Pretty sure you gave half our customers heart attacks. And the other half hearing problems.” 

“Wha - ?! Cease your wild and wholly untrue accusations! The Great ODIN DARK does not - !”

“Ugh, how many times can you refer to yourself in third person?! I am 100% positive that both you and I, and possibly even Mr. Fancy Pants over there, know your name by heart now, so if you would just stop shouting - “

“I must convey my passionate - “

“ _ENOUGH!_ ” 

Everything stopped. The two craz - ahem, _occult specialists_ stared at him with words half-formed on their lips, startled by the loud outburst. 

(He was also rather startled by the loud outburst, but while he had their attention…)

“Why do you know me?” 

The woman (Orochi was it?) recovered her wits quickly. Her smile was as confident and slightly malicious as before. “I told you. I foresaw your coming here.” She looked him dead in the eyes and said very seriously, “You play a very important role in shaping the fates of not one, but three realms.” 

...Right. 

“And how exactly would I go about doing that, pray tell?” The woman was obviously off her rocker.

She hummed thoughtfully. “Well. I’m guessing that demon you summoned would have something to do with it.” 

...Off her rocker but apparently clairvoyant. 

“Did you ‘foresee’ this too?” 

She rolled her eyes. “No need to when such a strong spiritual energy suddenly pops up out of nowhere. Figures you just _had_ to summon the most powerful demon in Hell right now.” 

_What_.

“You mean _Edward_?” The same demon that drank tea as daintily as a Victorian lady? The one Camilla bullied into wearing a flower crown to amuse Elise? 

The one who had been _residing in their living room_ for the past two weeks?! 

The magic duo were staring at him oddly and it belatedly occurred to him that _the most powerful demon in hell_ was not actually named ‘Edward’. Probably. 

(To be honest, Xander would not even be surprised right now if his actual name was Fluffy. This entire situation could not get any stranger.) 

“Y-You named him after a _sparkly, glorified bloodsucker_?!” 

“Wha - _no_! My little sister named him,” he said defensively. “And she never read - “ 

Oh wait. She did.

“...well, ‘Edward’ is a perfectly acceptable name.” 

“Right,” Orochi said skeptically, “Well, you didn’t summon the demon ‘Edward’. You summoned the demon Ryoma, crown prince of the province Hoshido and currently the most powerful, and most dangerous, being of both our realms.”

Great.

He felt like his head was bursting with all the new, impossible information he was trying to take in. ‘Edward’ was a prince? Hell had provinces? 

Hell was _an actual place that existed_? 

Xander wasn’t sure if he was equipped to handle all of this. But he had always prided himself on being a practical man, so he asked the practical question.

“Then how do I send him back?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Odin, my sweet summer child. Why are you so difficult to write?
> 
> All the comments and kudos made me blush. Thanks for reading!


	4. Demon Summoning 101

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Xander has the strangest tea party ever.

The smile that spread on Orochi’s face was slow and approving. “Now we’re talking.” She turned around with a dramatic sweep of robes and hair. “Come,” she beckoned, “we’ll speak more comfortably upstairs.” 

‘Upstairs’ turned out to be...fairly normal, actually. (Surprisingly.) Comfortable, black couches lined the small room around a coffee table that held a scattering of newspapers and used mugs. An open archway lead to a tiny kitchen directly across from the expansive windows, bathing the space in sunlight. 

It was surreal to watch people dressed like priestesses and magicians move about this perfectly normal space, tidying up and making tea. 

(But he supposed that a man - er, a man-shaped demon in full armor playing house was also pretty surreal.) 

Thus situated with tea and some kind of oddly-shaped biscuits, Xander faced the two occult specialists sitting opposite him and felt a little like a child about to be reprimanded by his parents. Which was ridiculous, because he was fairly certain he was older than both of them.

“So,” Orochi began, “what exactly do you know about demon summoning?”

A lot more than he wished to. “Not much. This summoning was...mostly accidental, and we were unable to find the original text which held the details.”

“No, no, no,” she waved her hand impatiently, “I’m not asking about the specifics. I’m asking what do you know about demon summoning _in general_?” 

“...they’re bad?” He wasn’t sure he understood the question. “You trade your soul in exchange for a wish?” 

“Well. You’re not that far off. Technically, they can ask for anything in return, just like you can wish for anything from the demon. It just so happens that _they_ prefer their payment in souls.” 

“Wily creatures, these demons be! Ask for a nickel and they ransom it for a king’s fortune!” 

“You haven’t made a deal yet with Prince Ryoma, have you?” Her gaze went from relaxed to piercing in the span of seconds and Xander felt like he was getting whiplash. 

“Of course not.”

She leaned forward. “Are you certain? No strong desires on your mind? No throwaway comments in the demon’s vicinity?”

He tried not to snort. “I doubt it would make a difference even if I had voiced something. We cannot understand each other.”

She blinked and the tension in the room snapped. “You...what?” 

“As of now, we are unable to determine what language Edw - the demon speaks. It would seem he cannot understand us either, so any wishes made would be pointless.”

Odin scratched his head. “You have no lines of communication with this dastardly demon?”

“We...try. With, er, pictures and gestures and such.” He coughed slightly and put the memories of his more ridiculous pantomimes out of mind. Who knew ‘shower’ would be so hard to act out? 

“Well, this could be a problem. There isn’t really a way to - Oh!” Orochi snapped her fingers. “I get it now. You never finished the summoning!” 

Considering the demon was very much present in his living room, Xander would say the summoning was pretty complete. 

“Did you perform the Taste of Understanding?” 

The what? “No? The demon wouldn’t eat anything.”

They both stared at him for a moment and Xander got the feeling he said something dumb. 

“The sacred Taste of Understanding is not a mere foodstuff! Er, unless you happen to be a devilish, Lord of the Night - “

“You used blood to summon the demon, right?” Orochi interrupted impatiently. “But you didn’t feed him any of that blood afterwards?”

“What? Of course not! Why would I do that?” 

She snapped her fingers. “Well, there’s your problem!”

Xander stared at her blankly, not really understanding...well, much of anything at this point. “So what you’re telling me is, the first thing I should have done after summoning a demon is _feed it blood_?” 

Odin nodded encouragingly. “‘Tis the natural progress of such things.”

He felt a little like Alice at the Mad Hatter’s table. _Were these people all crazy?_ Did he step into an alternate universe where the laws of physics and common sense didn’t apply?

“Well...think of blood as a carrier of the soul. The blood given allows the demon an insight into the components that make you, you.” She smirked. “As well as giving them a taste of the reward they can look forward to.” 

“...aren’t I here because I _don’t_ want to forfeit my soul? This all seems rather counterproductive.” What does this ‘taste’ have to do with language barriers anyways?

“Hm...it’s a bit hard to explain, but blood doesn’t contain any of the actual soul. Just the taste. Kind of like the aroma of food, you could say. You can get a ‘taste’ of the food from the smell, but you don’t actually take away any of it.” 

“I see.” A lie, but a mostly unimportant one in the long run. “So this will accomplish...what, exactly?” 

“The soul, that which is the very essence of your being, nay, the cumulation of your experiences and the script of your destiny, holds many secrets of the self! One of which must pertain to the usage and understanding of the spoken word!”

Xander could just feel the headache building. “So if I give him blood, he can understand me?” 

“Er...essentially, yes.” 

Okay then. “So once he can understand me, I can just ask him to leave?” 

“Well, he _did_ come all the way from Hell to answer your summons. _And_ it sounds like you kept him waiting around for 2 weeks. I would wager a guess that he wants something from you for all his trouble.”

“Contrary to the presumed knowledge of the darkness-naive masses, demons need not answer to every call that comes their way! He must want something from you in particular if you have indeed successfully summoned him.” 

Fantastic. “So there’s no way I am escaping this with my soul intact?” 

“I didn’t say that. Terms are never absolute if you know your way around a contract. Just bargain with him.”

Bargaining with a demon. Don’t most people warn _against_ doing that? 

“But one thing to keep in mind.” She fixed him with a grave look. “Whatever you have to offer this demon, whatever it is you have to do, you _must_ keep your soul your own. Your destiny depends on it.” 

He had to say he never really believed in the existence of souls before today (and was still doubtful). But he still wasn’t going to offer it to a demon, destiny or not. 

“I will keep your advice under consideration. Thank you for all the information.” Provided it wasn’t just a bunch of horse dung. “Now, what do I owe you…?” 

She waved him off. “Just make sure to drop by again. Your fate looks interesting and I would love to see it unfolding with my own eyes.”

“Correct! No need to be strangers when our fates are intertwined!”

He smiled weakly at them as he got up to leave. Honestly, he would rather have just paid them. 

“Oh! And tell your brother, the one who endowed the circle with magic? Someone is _very_ unhappy with him.” And the door was slammed in his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reaching the end of the portion of the story I have planned out, so updates might be a little slower after this. You know that one tiny scene that you ended up writing a whole story around? That's coming up next chapter. 
> 
> Thanks so much for the comments, kudos, and views! I hope all you lovely people find spare change in unexpected places today. Thanks for reading!
> 
> On a side note, please feel free to let me know if I made any mistakes! I do try to proofread stuff before posting but I unfortunately do not have as much time as I would like for that. Any help would be much appreciated!


	5. Negotiations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Xander gets his living room back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Procrastination strikes again! I don't even have an excuse, I just fail at life.

Ideally after such life-changing information, one should be able to address the problem right away. 

Those people, however, didn’t decide to seek out said information right before 8 hour work shifts. At least he had a lot of time to contemplate the situation in between coffee orders and directing people to bookshelves. 

(Although all his ‘contemplating’ resulted in was a worried-through, bleeding lip and no answers or bright ideas, so he supposed that wasn’t particularly helpful.) 

When he finally arrived home, it was dark out, the city quieter with the sun down. Xander was exhausted but apprehensive as he stood in front of his apartment door. Despite all the time devoted to thinking on this topic, he hadn’t figured out any foolproof way to convince the demon to leave peacefully. 

Well. As Elise puts it, he’ll just have to ‘wing it’. 

Pushing open the door, he is immediately faced with the demon staring at him gravely from his sitting position in his pentacle. The scene reminded him of nothing so much as a particularly large guard dog waiting at the front door and the irony almost made him laugh. Still, he nodded his greeting to Edw - _Ryoma_ , which was promptly returned, and Xander edged around the circle as always, discarding coats and other belongings. 

He knew his siblings would not be home yet, busy with extracurriculars, classes, or jobs, and he debated the wisdom of taking on the demon without any sort of backup or failsafe. But he was tired and had been mulling over this for hours now, so really, he just wanted this whole mess to be over. 

A note should suffice. Just in case the demon decided to leave Xander soulless, at least his siblings will know what happened. 

(What did a soulless person look like anyways? Would he just be a dead body then? He hoped not. That would probably traumatize Elise…) 

Xander shook his head to clear his mind. He must really be tired if he was losing himself in his thoughts like that. He hastily finished penning the note, placing his signature at the bottom so they would know that it was his. 

(He thought about putting in Orochi’s warning to Leo, but...well, it wasn’t like she advised him to do anything in particular. It wouldn’t do anything but worry him unnecessarily.) 

Task finished, he set the note on the counter in plain sight and considered his next move. 

No matter how much he had thought about it, there was just no dignified way to give his blood to the demon. 

He had no wish to go anywhere near the demon with anything remotely resembling a weapon. Which would make bloodletting quite a bit harder. He supposed he could simply give himself another paper cut, but the thought of doing so deliberately was...distinctly off-putting. 

(That he considered stabbing himself with a kitchen knife more of a viable option was probably not all that healthy.) 

In the end, he went with one of Camilla’s embroidery needles. He just hoped that this ‘taste’ thing didn’t require too much blood. 

He walked toward the demon slowly, making sure to keep the needle in plain view and to seem as nonthreatening as possible. There really was no way to communicate what he was trying to do through gestures, so he could only hope the demon was more knowledgeable about summonings than he was. 

(And that he didn’t think Xander was stupid enough to take on a sword-wielding demon with an embroidery needle.) 

The demon glanced down at his clothes for a moment, confused, but seemed to get it when Xander mimed sticking the needle into his finger. He stood up and, while he wasn’t quite as tall as Xander, he certainly cut a much more imposing figure at his full height.

Despite all the times he watched his siblings step into the pentacle without fear, Xander still found himself hesitating just outside the glowing lines. Deliberately putting himself at someone else’s mercy seemed like a bad idea at the best of times; putting himself at the mercy of a _demon king_ was just…

Well. Not particularly smart. 

He took a deep, fortifying breath. Put one foot into the pentacle and it sort of... _tingled_ a bit. Was that normal? Stepping fully into the circle made him feel like lightning was crawling across his skin, making his breath catch at just how much _power_ was being exuded. 

But a second later, it was gone. If he didn’t feel like all his hair was still on-end, Xander would have thought he had imagined the whole thing. It didn’t help that the demon didn’t act as if anything was out of the norm. 

(But looking to a demon to define ‘the norm’ was probably not a good idea in the first place.)

Looking up from his, er, impromptu perusal of his appearance (one must always appear their best whenever possible, was his philosophy), Xander was struck by how _close_ the other was. Where he is now, he could see the gold flecks in brown eyes, the barely-there freckles across the bridge of his nose, the small laugh lines around his mouth…

It occurred to Xander that he should have asked what _kind_ of demon he was currently housing. He didn’t make it a habit to wax poetic about, well, much of anything really. 

Obviously, the demon had addled his wits. 

He glared at the demon, making sure to remember exactly what he was looking at. This is the prince of Hell; not just some poor schmuck that’s been camping in his living room for the past few weeks. It’d take more than some voodoo magic to win him over! 

The demon had the nerve to look confused about the animosity. 

Xander gave him one last glare, just for good measure, then turned back to the task at hand. Camilla always kept her needles sharp, polished, and ready for use, which he had always thought was an odd habit, considering she rarely had time to embroider anymore. In this case though, it came in handy. 

Considering his options only briefly, he decided upon his left index finger. The wound shouldn’t be too noticeable even if he messed up badly. He supposed the demon would just have to...lick his finger or something. 

He frowned. Would the demon be willing to do that? He _is_ royalty, after all. Maybe he didn’t think this through enough. Should he get a cup or…? 

Glancing up, he saw that the demon was now fixated on his finger, eyeing it with thinly veiled hunger. Guess he didn’t need a cup after all. 

(Although that option might be safer for the wellbeing of his finger. Hopefully, he wasn’t in a flesh eating mood today.) 

Without further ado, he jammed the needle into his finger. It wouldn’t do to keep on this track and delay the inevitable. The pain helped to pull him out of his head, although it thankfully didn’t hurt quite as much as he had expected.

It also didn’t bleed as much as expected.

Xander stared perplexed at his finger, which definitely showed a puncture mark, but was refusing to bleed. He squeezed the digit, hoping to promote blood flow, but it remained stubbornly blood-free. 

He pricked his finger again (which hurt a lot more this time, gods take it), but the outcome didn’t change. Perhaps the needle was too dull to pierce all the skin? He really was hoping to avoid having to cut himself with a knife. Not only was it unsanitary, his workplace was just about to switch to their summer uniforms and a knife wound would be hard to explain… 

On habit, he bit his lip. And then immediately winced as he reopened the cut from earlier, flooding his mouth with the taste of copper. Gods, he really needed to find a way to stop. Such habits were hardly befitting of a man his age - 

“ _Itadakimasu._ ” 

All of a sudden, he was falling forward. There was something cold and unyielding yanking him down by the back of the neck, forcing him to lean down - 

There was the briefest sensation of _soft_ and _warm_ against his lips before everything _exploded_. 

_Xander, five years old again, tried not to cry as he dug a small grave for his pet bird._

_He was running through the hallways, following the scent of his favorite blueberry pie._

_Honey and lavender, his mother’s perfume at all his piano recitals._

_It was humid and raining and fear was choking him so much he couldn’t breathe -_

_Day-old coffee and a bookshelf full of -_

_Camilla was waving a note at him -_

_Another pentacle, but it reeked of -_

_Red. There was so much red everywhere and it made him feel -_

Xander stumbled back, gasping for air. He half expected all those...those _visions_ to manifest out of nowhere again, but all he saw was the demon, lazily licking a smear of red off his lips. 

Wait. Was that - ?

“I apologize for the late introduction. I am Ryoma of Hoshido. Thank you for inviting me into your lovely home.” His voice was smooth, deep, and powerful, like lightning kept on a leash. He also had no discernible accent, despite ‘learning’ the language not even a minute ago. 

…

He had so many questions, starting from the weird visions and going right down to that anticlimactic introduction. 

“Did you just _kiss me_?” 

That...was not the question he meant to ask.

The demon’s brow scrunched. “‘Kiss’?”

“I - that is...n- _never mind_.” This wasn’t worth the headache he could feel brewing. “I am Xander of, er, this apartment. While you are not any less welcome - “ lies “ - your presence here was certainly unintended. I was informed that you had chosen to answer my summoning…?” 

“Yes,” he said simply. 

They stared at each other for a few moments.

Right. So this was something the demon didn’t want to discuss. 

He cleared his throat. “I see. Well, er, if you could just let me know what it is you wanted, we can go about getting you home.” Please don’t say your soul, please don’t say your soul…

Ryoma quirked an eyebrow. “I was under the impression that these interactions usually went the other way around.” 

Great. Now the demon was _sassing_ him. “As I’ve already established, I have no pressing need for anything at the moment.” Except to get this whole mess sorted and out of his living room as soon as possible. “Am I right to assume you stayed here for some sort of reason?”

“You...would not be entirely incorrect,” he answered slowly. “It’s a bit more complicated than that.” 

He waited a bit, but nothing else seemed to be following that statement. Fantastic. This demon certainly kept his cards close to his chest. 

“So there is nothing I could do to convince you to lea - to return home?” He couldn’t quite hide the frustration in his voice. It wasn’t like he expected this to be easy, per say, but did this demon _have_ to make this so damn difficult?

Oh, right. This is what demons do. Supposedly. He’d have to ask Orochi or Odin to be sure, now that demons were no longer just mythical beings that only crazy people believed existed, but he didn’t think that they could be all _that_ different from the pop culture image and - 

He was rambling. He really needed sleep. 

The demon seemed to be considering. “I am willing to depart,” he said slowly, “if you are willing to give your word that this will not be the last time we meet.” 

“...pardon?” 

He struggled carelessly under Xander’s incredulous stare. “I like it here. I would like to come back again.”

He had no idea his living room was so interesting. 

“Ah, I meant this world in general,” the demon clarified, “Although I am sure your home is lovely, by human standards.” He added a polite nod. 

Oh, yes. He could see how mysterious stains and squeaky floorboards would appeal to people. Demons. Whatever. 

Sarcasm aside, this offer seemed highly suspicious. After all the trouble the demon caused (both unintentionally and deliberately), this request seemed a little too... _convenient_. He could be aiding and abetting a dangerous individual in...in _world domination_ or some other suitably evil and dangerous activity! 

But on the other hand, the demon would be out of his living room. Who _cared_ what he would get up to later? 

“Done.”

And that was how Xander made a deal with a demon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone is still around, thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> See my [tumblr](http://secretsandsin.tumblr.com) for more of my works.


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